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Locking In – Four Responses to God’s Glory: Angels December 25, 2009

Continuing on the theme of the four responses to God’s Glory, I focused this time on the Angels.

Angels step into the story of Christ’s birth several times, all to give news to specific people directly affected by God’s plan. We see the angel Gabriel address Zechariah and tell him that “I am Gabriel! I stand in the very presence of God. It was he who sent me to bring this good news!” (Luke 1:19) We see Gabriel again when he tells Mary that she has been chosen by God to give birth to his son, the savior of his people. He encourages her, while understanding her confusion, and says “…nothing is impossible with God.” (Luke 1:26-37). We see an angel of the Lord appear to Joseph in a dream telling him to “not be afraid to go ahead with your marriage to Mary.” (Matthew 1:20-23) The angel told Joseph that Jesus would be the fulfillment of the prophecy found in Isaiah 7:14, 8:8,10.

And again we see angels appear to the Shepherds (the response of the Shepherds will be in the next post) in Luke 2:8-15. One angel appeared to the shepherds, and the “radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them.” And the angel proceeded to tell them the good news of great joy–Jesus the Messiah had been born. Then the angel was joined by a great host of angels and they praised the Lord saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to all whom God favors.”

The angels, God’s messengers in this story, reveal God’s glory in their words and actions. Because they are God’s messengers they correctly point who the honor should be directed to…God. Not only do the angels give praise and honor to the Lord, they also focus on peace.

Intrigued, I found the following verses:

Isaiah 57:19a – “Then the words of praise will be on their lips. May they have peace…says the Lord.”

Isaiah 9:6-7 – “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. And the government will rest on his shoulders. These will be his royal titles: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His ever-expanding peaceful government will never end. He will rule forever with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David. The passionate commitment of the Lord Almighty will guarantee this!”

Micah 5:2-5 – “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village in Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past…And he will be the source of our peace.”

Along with our praise of Him, what He has done, is doing, and will do for us, we need to remember that He is our source of peace. Our lives can get hectic and crazy. The problems of our lives can become noisy in our head and our heart taking our focus off of the one who is our source of peace…off of our Prince of Peace.

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to all whom God favors.”